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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28366113">Blind</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/OkaySky/pseuds/OkaySky'>OkaySky</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood &amp; Manga</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blind Character, Blind Roy Mustang, Edward Elric Swears, FMA Secret Santa 2020, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV Roy Mustang, Promised Day, only royed if you squint</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 22:54:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,655</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28366113</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/OkaySky/pseuds/OkaySky</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate take on the Promised Day where Edward actually cares a little bit about his CO.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Edward Elric &amp; Roy Mustang, Edward Elric/Roy Mustang</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>162</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>FMA Secret Santa 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Blind</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArdentKnight/gifts">ArdentKnight</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>merry christmas ya filthy animals. this was written for the tumblr fma secret santa exchange for tumblr user ardentknight, who requested angst or hurt/comfort royed set during canon or canon-divergence. i hope it delivers!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Roy was pinned down, limbs spread far apart by Pride’s shadow arms. His hands throbbed with the panicked beating of his heart, blood welling out of the vertical wounds Bradley had left on him that had barely missed any important tendons or delicate bones. His eyes darted around wildly, seeking any way he could escape from the transmutation circle inscribed into the stone floor below him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hmm,” Bradley growled, wiping blood from his face. “I wonder what will be taken from you?” At his words, Pride activated the transmutation circle using the mangled body of the gold-toothed scientist, and Roy screamed in pain and terror as his body began to disappear before his very eyes. The last thing that Roy saw was the transmutation marks racing up his torso and consuming him whole.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The scene around Roy was suddenly different, as if he had merely blinked and opened his eyes at a new location. Endless white stretched in every direction, and an ominous presence behind him raised the hair on the back of his neck. Roy jerked around, staring in shock at the madly grinning white figure that stood before the enormous, ornate door. The creature didn’t speak, merely spread its arms wide as the door behind it opened, revealing an enormous purple eye, and a thousand writhing hands swarmed through the doors and towards Roy. Before he could even raise his hand to snap, or bend his legs to run, the reaching hands wrapped around him and pulled him bodily through the door and into darkness.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The hands suddenly released him, and a feeling similar to being dissolved by Pride’s activation of the transmutation circle raced over Roy’s body. He understood that he was being reconstructed somewhere, but could not see where for the darkness around him, nor did he have time to process that he was being reconstructed somewhere unknown before he smashed into the ground. He managed to save himself from a concussion only just, by rotating his shoulder beneath his head as he fell.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Colonel?!” cried a panicked voice from nearby; it echoed wildly, giving a sense that the space Roy found himself in was an enormous underground cave or something: huge, empty, and woefully dark. Was he even further beneath Central now, in the lair of their enemy? Roy pushed himself up off the ground, cringing in pain. The fresh incisions in his hands wept blood freely as he strained to hold his weight on them, and every muscle in his body ached — from the fierce fighting, from being deconstructed and subsequently reconstructed, from falling from however high he had falling and crashing into the hard floor. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The high, childish voice of Pride echoed from across the room then. “I’ve brought you the fifth one, Father.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <b>
    <em>Hmm</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” remarked a voice so inhuman and swimming with pure malice Roy was overcome with nausea. Or was that from the pain? “</span>
  <b>
    <em>We’ve got five ‘bodies,’ yes, but Alphonse Elric is not actually with us at the moment.</em>
  </b>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Roy rubbed gingerly at the back of his head, groaning in pain at the motion tugged at the open wound in his hand and sent dull waves of pain radiating across his skull. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You okay, Colonel?!” the first voice exclaimed from directly beside Roy, and dimly he realized it was a voice he recognized, once he got past the weird echo the cavernous space was giving it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fullmetal?” Roy groaned, clutching his temple. The pain in his head felt like it was clustered behind his brow now, beating in time with his frantic heart in his eye sockets. “Where are we?” he asked Edward, trying desperately to gain some sort of control over his situation.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“In their boss’s lair!” Edward said, confirming Roy’s suspicions that they were indeed deep in the underbelly of Central. That explained the cave-like qualities, then. “What happened to you?” Ed continued, turning Roy’s mind back to the horrifying trip from the chamber with Riza and Bradley to where he now kneeled. Funny, the whole journey had probably only taken a few seconds, but somehow the circle Pride had bound him to felt like it was years away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“They took me to an empty white world with a massive gate—” Roy began.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Gate?!” Edward interrupted. “What did it take?” Something snatched Roy’s ankle and jerked his leg out from under him, sending Roy careening over. “Are your legs still there? And your arms?!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing?! Are you with me, Fullmetal?!” Roy cried in protest as hands continued to push and jerk on his limbs. At his words, the wandering hands stilled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“... What are you talking about?” Edward asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s pitch black, I can’t see anything,” Roy clarified, needlessly in his opinion. He turned his face towards the sound of Edward’s voice, hoping to catch a glimpse of his golden eyes or his glimmering automail or something catching the light. “Where are we? Can you see any lights?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The silence that filled the cave was deafening. Fear swelled in Roy’s chest; why wasn’t Edward answering? Then the younger alchemist’s earlier words came back to him, and the ground seemed to tilt beneath him. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What did it take...?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I… can’t see…” Roy whispered, his world suddenly crashing down around him. No, there was no way. He would be able to tell if he was really blind, wouldn’t he? Maybe his eyes hadn’t adjusted to the dark. Maybe if he moved to a different spot, he would be able to get some light and finally be able to make out Edward’s silhouette enough to refute the suspicion that now gripped his heart like ice. He struggled to his feet, aching muscles protesting and hands shaking where they pushed against his knees — no time to worry about his hands, he had to move, </span>
  <em>
    <span>he had to move </span>
  </em>
  <span>— and hesitantly staggered across the floor. He only made it a few steps before the toe of his boot caught something and he tripped, barely catching himself on hands and knees to prevent his face from slamming again into the ground.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“N… No…” Ed murmured, his voice barely audible. “No, it can’t be…” Hands touched Roy and he startled away from their grasp. They latched more firmly onto his coat, and Roy’s own hands flew up to grip the wrists, prepared to throw the offender off of him. As his fingers wrapped around the trembling arms, one cold and unyielding, the other soft and muscled, Roy realized they must be Edward’s.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Colonel, look at me,” Edward demanded, his hands tightening in Roy’s lapels. “Come on, I know you can, just look at me!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ed—” a feminine voice began hesitantly from a short ways away, but was ignored as Ed’s voice began to rise hysterically.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Your eyes are still there, I can see them,” Edward babbled to himself, one hand releasing Roy to cup his cheek and stroke his thumb across his lower lid, pulling it down slightly as if to check that Roy’s eye did in fact continue down past his waterline. “It didn’t take your eyes, they’re still here. You just need a second to adjust, maybe you hit your head, it’ll be fine—”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Have you gone blind?” Pride’s horrid voice interjected. “Splendid! Of all the alchemists here, your abilities were the most troublesome. Now suffer anguish.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He’s not blind!” Edward spat, his voice directed away from Roy.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <b>
    <em>The truth is cruel</em>
  </b>
  <span>,” the poisonous voice of Father replied. “</span>
  <b>
    <em>A pair of brothers who abandoned reason and tried to resurrect their departed mother, seeking her warmth once more</em>
  </b>
  <span>—”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shut up!” Edward yelled; Father carried on, ignoring the protests of the alchemist.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“— </span>
  <b>
    <em>one loses a leg to stand on and his only remaining family</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>—</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Stop it!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“— </span>
  <b>
    <em>the other the ability to feel the warmth he so desperately missed.</em>
  </b>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You don’t know a damn thing about us!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <b>
    <em>A woman who tried to take back her dead child</em>
  </b>
  <span>—”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Leave her out of this!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ — </span>
  <b>
    <em>only to end up with a body that will never again nurture the seed of life.</em>
  </b>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shut your goddamn mouth!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <b>
    <em>And… a man who had a grand vision to save his country loses his eyesight, forever unable to see what his beloved nation will become.</em>
  </b>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll fucking kill you!” Edward snarled, his hands vanishing from where they had clenched in Roy’s coat and the echoing of his footsteps filling the air as he charged away towards Father.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was a loud crash from the ceiling, and a good deal of shouting from several different voices, but Roy was numb to it all. He clutched at his face, desperately willing his vision to return if he could just somehow claw away the dark curtain that had fallen over the world. His mind was spinning, buzzing in a constant loop of ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>What did it take?’</span>
  </em>
  <span> and ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>loses his eyesight, forever unable to see</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ This couldn’t be happening. There was no— He hadn’t even been the one to activate the circle, and he hadn’t gained anything. Where was the equivalent exchange? This wasn’t equal. He had gained nothing and instead had lost everything. How was he supposed to fight now? His alchemy relied so heavily on his sight, as did any firearms, and he was far from a hand-to-hand expert. How was he going to protect himself, and those he cared about, in the battle that was surely about to come? Would someone sacrifice themself to protect him? Would he die here, defenseless and useless? And if he didn’t, if he survived today somehow, what then was he to do? There was no way Amestris would accept a blind Fuhrer. Would it even accept a blind colonel? What would he do now?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Roy’s panic was halted as Father’s putrid voice screeched out, “</span>
  <b>
    <em>The fifth one is here!</em>
  </b>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And now the fight would begin.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t quite what one would call “peaceful” just yet. The adrenaline had left Roy’s body after the conclusion of the battle, and now he sat slumped on a crate in a makeshift tent set up for the innumerable wounded. The pain of his many injuries had finally flared up, and he felt almost overwhelmed by the cacophony of noises around him: the voices of many soldiers and volunteers calling instructions and requests across the compound, the anguished cries of the wounded as they were unearthed from the debris and carried to safety, the shifting and crashing of disturbed rubble… It was all almost too much. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Heavy, uneven footsteps nearby caught his attention, and then the sound of someone settling down beside him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“... Fullmetal?” Roy asked hesitantly. The sound of his visitor’s gait made him quite certain of their identity, but without being able to see his face and confirm it with his own eyes he felt uncertain.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Colonel,” Edward greeted him softly. “You look like shit.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“As much as I would like to say ‘likewise,’ I have no idea how you look,” Roy replied despondently. A quiet hiss sounded out as Edward seemed to cringe at his own faux pas. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fuck, I’m sorry,” Edward rushed to apologize. “I didn’t mean—”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s fine, Fullmetal,” Roy sighed. “The sooner we all get used to it and start cracking jokes about it, the sooner I can… get on with my life, I suppose.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“... What do you mean?” Edward murmured. Roy inhaled slowly through his nose and then out loudly through his mouth, preparing himself to finally say out loud what had been on his mind ever since he had accepted that he was blind, down in Father’s lair.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m blind,” Roy said bluntly. “My sight is gone, and quite permanently I expect. As something taken by the Gate, there will be no simple healing of it. It would require an exchange for which I have no equivalence, the way you and Alphonse did.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But—” Edward began, but Roy barrelled on. He needed to say this.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I need to accept that this is likely permanent,” Roy continued. “There is no place in the military for a blind soldier; I’ll be forced to retire. At least it will be an honorable discharge, I hope, instead of the dishonorable one I could have expected had we failed today.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Edward was silent, as if waiting for Roy to announce his “gotcha,” his plan for how he would continue to pursue the Fuhrership even despite this seemingly insurmountable hurdle. When none came, he growled out,</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t accept that.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s too bad,” Roy drawled. He waited for Edward to respond again, but the younger man didn’t seem like he planned to.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“... Fullmetal?” Roy pushed. At his side, Edward drew in a shaky breath, and then knocked his right fist — in the flesh! Restored! — against Roy’s shoulder.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How am I supposed to pay you back the money I owe you now, you bastard?” Edward muttered. A weary smile stole over Roy’s face unbidden. How indeed?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s not like you can’t just pay it back to me now,” Roy teased. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hell no,” Edward snapped. “I promised to pay you back when you were the Fuhrer, and you’re not seeing a cenz from me if you don’t make it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know why I expected anything else from you,” Roy sighed. “How is Alphonse?” he continued, eager to change the subject now that he had confessed what he needed to say.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He’s great!” was Edward’s immediate and over-enthusiastic response, followed by a much more timid, “Well, he’s gonna need to be hospitalized for a while. His muscles are pretty atrophied, and he can’t eat solid food yet or it’ll just come back up.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But he’s alive,” Roy breathed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But he’s alive,” Edward agreed. “And that’s what matters.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m surprised you aren’t with him right now,” Roy commented. “I had expected you to fawn over him like a mother hen.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He’s not some little baby who needs me to supervise him every second or anything,” Edward snarled defensively. “And, uh, they were hooking him up to some IVs and stuff. To get fluids and shit in him, y’know.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re still bad with needles, huh?” Roy chuckled, recalling years past when Edward had been hospitalized in Central, or when he first had to receive a physical after enlisting with the military. The teen’s comical fear of needles would have been fun for Roy to poke fun at, if he hadn’t made the connection that the fear likely arose from the traumatic surgery Edward had undergone to acquire his automail.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Edward admitted under his breath. “So I left him to it for now and went to help out with all the other stuff going on around here.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Tell me what ‘other stuff’ you’ve been up to,” Roy pleaded, eager for a distraction from his own anxieties.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, there’s been a lot of chaos around Central command,” Edward started. A light </span>
  <em>
    <span>thump thump thump</span>
  </em>
  <span> sounded as he presumably began kicking one foot against the crate they were both perched on, if the reverberations traveling through Roy’s own legs was any indication. “Half of the compound is destroyed, more or less, and there’s a lot of people trapped in the rubble. I’ve been tryin’ to help uncover them and get them to the medics, but it’s… a lot harder than I expected, without alchemy I mean.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, I expect you aren’t used to doing things with your own two arms,” Roy joked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hah, no kidding,” Edward laughed. “It’s weird as hell having two arms at all. That’s part of why I’m here instead of out there still helping, I guess. My left arm got some metal shit stuck in it during the fight, and it’s hurting pretty bad now if I’m being honest. My right arm is… I don’t wanna say it’s fucked up, not visually or anything so don’t picture it that way, okay, Mustang? But it’s pretty weak. I can’t really help carry anybody or whatever.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Just how weak is it?” Roy asked. “You mentioned Alphonse was rather severely atrophied, and I imagine your arm is likely in a similar state.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Here, feel,” Edward said, his left hand taking Roy’s own hand gently, mindful of the bandages that wrapped around and around his palm, and placing it on his right bicep. “Make a mental picture of it or something.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If he hadn’t known it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>Edward’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> right arm, Roy likely would not have had much of anything to say about it. The skin was soft as his fingers slid across it, unblemished and smooth. The delicate bones of Edward’s wrist felt fragile, like the wings of a bird, tiny and elegant. His fingers were narrow and uncalloused, the fingernails long and untrimmed, antithetical to his left hand that Roy knew was broad and square and strong. Roy’s hand smoothed up Edward’s forearm, gliding towards his shoulder, noting the lack of muscle definition and fat. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He hesitated when he reached the bony point of Edward’s shoulder, not wanting to overstep the boundaries of what was considered acceptable for their relationship — and what were they now? Likely no longer subordinate and commander, now that Edward had got what he had been seeking from the military. “Acquaintance” was too distant a word to describe a relationship that had lasted 5 years and ran as deep as theirs, but he could already imagine Edward’s objection to the word “friend;” it was likely an expletive-laden tirade filled with complaints and a liberal application of the word “bastard.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Edward answered that question in the way he did best, through action rather than words. His left hand again took Roy’s and gently brought it inwards towards the center of his chest. Under Roy’s fingertips he felt the dry linen of fresh bandages, the gnarled and strangely smooth expanse of the scar where automail had once bitten into flesh, and then the cold metal of a bolt fastened to Edward’s collarbone. Roy’s clever fingers toyed with the bolt for a moment, fascinated at the contrasting sensations of the warm, soft skin of Edward’s clavicle and the cold, sharp-edged bolt that was all that remained of the only right arm of Edward’s that Roy had ever seen with his own eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, Fullmetal,” Roy bit out hastily when he realized what he was doing, yanking his hand away from Edward’s collar. Edward’s dry chuckle shook the crate and Roy felt a small sense of hope for the first time in several of the longest hours of his life.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry about it, Colonel,” Edward replied. His foot resumed kicking the crate. “You know, you don’t have to call me Fullmetal anymore. I can’t do alchemy anymore, so it’s not like I can even be the Fullmetal Alchemist ever again.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“In that case, you don’t need to call me Colonel any longer, either,” Roy sighed. The kicking ceased.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not this again,” Edward muttered before declaring at full volume, “You’re not gonna be forced to retire. We’re gonna find a way to fix this.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How do you suggest I do that?” Roy snapped. “You and your brother may have been lucky enough to recover what you lost to Truth, but the rest of us don’t have a backup gate they can abscond through. What’s gone is gone.” The beginnings of a sob caught in the back of his throat, and he clamped down on it tightly. In the endless darkness that had become his new reality, where he couldn’t read anyone else’s expressions, it was almost easy to forget how to wear his masks and hide his emotions. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re not listening to me,” Edward said, gripping Roy’s shoulder firmly. Grounding him. “You don’t have to do everything alone, ya stubborn bastard. I said </span>
  <em>
    <span>we</span>
  </em>
  <span> are gonna find a way to fix this.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“‘We’?” Roy repeated skeptically. “Last I checked, you didn’t have alchemy to magically fix this for me either.” A sharp pain bloomed in Roy’s shin; presumably he had just been kicked for his sass.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Quit bein’ a smartass,” Edward growled. “Someone interesting found me while I was out and followed me back here.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wha—” Roy started, but Edward plowed onwards.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Dr. Marcoh, I know you’re still out there; come in here.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Dr. Marcoh?!” Roy repeated, head swiveling towards the sound of approaching footsteps. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I overheard you talking,” the grizzled voice of the doctor said. “I have a philosopher’s stone here. Can you use this as the toll to regain your sight?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Roy was momentarily speechless, conflicting emotions swirling in his mind. Yes, he knew the power of the stone, of course. It was incredibly likely that it possessed the power to regain his vision. But at what cost? He knew now what the sacrifice was, the toll that Truth would take in exchange. The stone Marcoh offered him contained untold number of souls. Why hadn’t Edward spoken up yet? The teen had been quite vocal about refusing to use the stone to regain he and his brother’s bodies. Why was he silent?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t hold back on my account,” Edward teased, somehow understanding Roy’s hesitation. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I… don’t understand,” Roy admitted. “The stone is made of human lives; you would really be okay with me using it for something as petty as my eyes?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t undervalue yourself like that,” Edward spat. “If you use the stone, you don’t have to retire. You can stay in the military and finish your plan to fix this country from the inside. You’re a good man, Mustang, and your plan is worth it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why should I use the stone, when you and Alphonse wouldn’t?” Roy pressed. It made no sense to him that Edward was so easygoing about this whole situation.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We made a promise to each other that we wouldn’t use a stone to restore ourselves,” Edward replied. “We would get our bodies back using our own power, and nobody would have to suffer for it. You never made a promise like that.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But still, the souls—”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“They’re already in the stone, aren’t they?” Edward interrupted. “Their lives were taken from them, and there’s nothing we can do to give them back. It’s the same as my old man and the souls inside of him: there’s no way to give them back what was taken from them, but at least don’t let their sacrifice be in vain. I think they would rather be used to heal than to hurt.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Roy rubbed at the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, thinking it over. Edward certainly had a point; if the stone wasn’t used to heal his eyes, it could be used in another Ishval, if it fell into the wrong hands. Or Dr. Marcoh would use it to heal someone else, probably. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why heal me?” Roy said, this time directed at the doctor.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I will give this to you on one condition,” Marcoh declared. “We could not have won this battle without the cooperation of the Ishvalans. Colonel Mustang, I want you to revise the policies on Ishval. Lift the barricade on Ishval, and let the Ishvalans living in the slums return to their holy land. And… I want you to allow me to live there as a doctor.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kimblee’s words from many years ago echoed in Roy’s mind. </span>
  <em>
    <span>‘Do not look away from each new death. Look straight ahead and never forget.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ As he had ordered, Roy had never forgotten the blood on his hands, the many deaths responsible for his prestige. Atoning for what he had done, repaying them for what they had given him at their expense, seemed the least he could do. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Roy held out his hands and felt Marcoh’s gnarled, calloused ones grip his own just as tightly. “I promise,” Roy said, feeling the press of the stone in his palm. “I will devote my full power to revising policy on Ishval.” Marcoh released him, and Roy clutched the stone tightly in his lap. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I won’t let you down</span>
  </em>
  <span>, he thought. He wondered if they could hear him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Major,” Roy called, recalling Major Armstrong bringing him to the tent; the large man’s heavy footsteps had not retreated since his arrival, so he assumed the man was still there. The rustle of fabric and the approach of those heavy footfalls proved him right. “Will you deliver a message for me? Tell all my subordinates, ‘I’m going to be busy again. Follow me.’”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, sir,” Armstrong intoned, and then the sounds of his steps faded, accompanied by the doctor’s. The quiet that followed was eventually broken by the soft </span>
  <em>
    <span>thump thump thump</span>
  </em>
  <span> of Edward’s boot on the crate.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want to say I told you so,” Edward said; Roy could hear the grin in his voice.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You just did,” Roy said. He felt Edward shrug beside him, the smooth skin of his shoulder brushing against Roy’s jacket. “You knew he was going to offer the stone to me, didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I had a feeling,” Edward admitted. “He asked me if I knew where you were, and I told him I was looking for you myself, and then he trailed after me like a lost puppy. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out he wanted to talk to you about something pretty important.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What will you do now?” Roy asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I dunno,” Edward admitted. “I was so focused on getting to this point, that I hadn’t really thought beyond it. Al needs time to heal up and get his strength back, so that’ll take a while. After that though? Who knows. I’m just playing it by ear, I guess.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Had you thought at all about settling down?” Roy suggested, even as he resented the thought. As if Edward Elric could ever settle down and stop moving. “I’m sure Miss Rockbell would appreciate your company.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What, Winry?” Edward scoffed. “Yeah, after she beats my brains out so I can’t talk back, maybe. I don’t think we could stand each other for more than a few weeks at a time. We do need to head back to Resembool once Al is able to, though, I guess. Show her and Granny that we’re okay now.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Will you stay in Resembool?” Roy asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nah, it’s too quiet there,” Edward laughed. “Every time I’ve had to stay there in the past few years while I got my automail fixed, I about died of boredom within a couple of days. I was thinking about traveling, maybe. Seeing the rest of the world. I’ve already gone all over Amestris, why not see what else is out there?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And after you’ve seen what else the world has to offer?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What is this, an interrogation?” Edward teased, elbowing Roy and then bumping their shoulders together. “I just told you, I haven’t thought that far ahead.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, if you ever find that you need something to keep your mind busy a little closer to home, there’s always a place for you on my team, still.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m not an alchemist anymore,” Edward reminded him.</span>
  <span></span><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, you’ve made that abundantly clear,” Roy huffed. “I don’t mean as an alchemist. We could use your help as a strategist, or with logistics, or the theoretical part of alchemy. You could design arrays, I could activate them. Whatever you felt like doing.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” Edward hedged.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re like family to the team at this point,” Roy pointed out. “We wouldn’t turn you away if you wanted to rejoin us. Just an idea.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hmm,” Edward replied noncommittally. The </span>
  <em>
    <span>thump thump thump</span>
  </em>
  <span> of his boot resumed, quieter this time, and then stopped.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fuck, I’m tired,” Edward swore under his breath. “Do you mind if I rest here for a bit? I’m no use to anybody out there right now.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Roy could relate. “I don’t mind at all.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thanks,” Edward sighed, and then a heavy weight plopped down on Roy’s shoulder. Roy’s face turned towards it instinctively, still unused to the concept that even if he turned to face something he wouldn’t be able to see it, and soft hair tickled his skin. Roy couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re welcome."</span>
</p>
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